


night breezes seem to whisper i love you

by disasteratsea



Category: Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 16:42:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6016969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasteratsea/pseuds/disasteratsea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's their first holiday together, and James has been planning this for weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	night breezes seem to whisper i love you

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the lyrics for Dream A Little Dream Of Me.
> 
> This isn't beta'd or really edited, whoopsie, hope there aren't any big mistakes.

She’s known for weeks that he’d been planning something. But this – coming home to find candles leading up the stairs to her apartment, the smell of something cooking in the oven, soft music playing from the stereo – hadn’t been what she expected. Natasha had thought they’d go out for dinner, maybe stay somewhere nice for the night. There wasn’t much that could surprise her, barring the occasional alien invasion and the reveal that her long lost lover was also Captain America’s long lost best friend and she’d been working for the bad guys all along – really what are the odds? – but James had always been full of surprises.

This thing they’re doing is pretty new. They’ve been getting to know each other all over again, and she’s found that this James is still her Soldier in all the ways that matter. And this Bucky Barnes guy, this sweet, charming, romantic man that had clawed his way out of the depths of the Winter Soldier, she likes him more than she’s willing to let anyone know.  

She’s different too. Older. Wiser. She’s been her own person for over a decade now. And some days she likes this person too. She loves and she trusts and knows that she is loved and is trusted. The Natasha of today is a long ways away from the Natalia that the Soldier had trained.

It’s the silliest thing: she gets nervous on her way up. Every step she takes a little ball of energy builds in her. It’s excitement and anxiety knotting together in the pit of her stomach and Natasha is _giddy_. It’s those butterflies that Clint had told her about once upon a time. _I don’t get butterflies,_ she had told him then.  

She hesitates at the top of the stairs, follows the candles that line the hallway to her door, and there’s James, waiting inside holding a rose when she gets there.

The candles don’t end at the door, they’re set up on the window sills and tables, and there are fairy lights hanging from the tall ceilings. They’re the only thing lighting the apartment, and they make the whole place look warm and soft. It’s beautiful, really, and she’s nothing short of impressed.

“You’ve been busy.” Natasha smiles, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and running her fingers through his hair. It’s unbelievably soft. When her nails scratch against his scalp James hums and leans into her hand, Natasha knows that if she scratches just a little harder, tugs on his hair a little, James will moan. It doesn’t take much with him, it never has.

James dips his head down the few inches needed to run his nose across her cheek, to kiss her softly.

“Do you like it?” He asks with that ridiculous little half-smile, the one he says always got him out of trouble as a boy. He’s nervous too, Natasha realizes. She should have known sooner. It’s the first holiday they’ve spent together in years, the first that they can actually celebrate together without hiding. And James had put everything he had into it, the romantic idiot.

It’s snowing outside, but inside it’s warm, and the lights glow softly around them, KD Lang is playing through the speakers, James’ hands rest on her waist, his forehead’s pressed against hers and they’re swaying gently together; Natasha is surrounded by his affection. Like this Natasha can forget everything else. The world falls away around them and all that’s left are the two of them and it’s perfect.

“I love it.”

He nods. “Good.” He says, pressing his lips to her forehead. He’s pleased, she can tell, hiding his smile in her hair, but she can feel it there as he breathes in deeply. “You smell nice.” He murmurs into her hair.

Natasha laughs, lightly smacking his shoulder because _dork_ , he’s always doing that: saying sweet things that make her smile. “Speaking of, I didn’t know you could cook.”

“Oh, it’s just one of my many skills.” James grins.

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty good at it.” He says lightly, shrugging and pretending it’s not a big deal that he’s done all of this.

“Hmm.” She smiles. Again, _dork_. “You’re so domestic. Wanna be my stay-at-home boyfriend? You can take care of the house while I’m at work, pack my lunch in the morning, the works.”

Natasha runs her fingers through his hair again – she loves doing that, having the freedom to do that whenever she wants – and he just burrows in closer to her. “What is that?” she says, wondering at the smell that’s drifted over to them.

“What’s what?” James asks with a smile, lifting his head from her shoulder and freezing. “The lasagna.” He says before running to the kitchen. Natasha follows when she hears his short curse and the banging of the oven door, and gets there to see him pulling the pan out with his metal hand. That’s one unintended use for it, removing hot dishes without oven mitts.

The lasagna is a little burnt around the edges, but otherwise fine, and she tells him so, but James remains disappointed in it, turning a frown to his plate.

“James,” she nudges him with her foot “It’s good, really. All of it. I can’t believe you did all of this.”

He gives her that soft sad smile again. “I just wanted it to be perfect. Our first holiday together, you know, after everything.”

“I know.” Her hand slides over his on the table, fingers slotting together like that’s what they were meant for. “Tonight – I never imagined we’d have this. Tonight has been perfect.”

 

Later, with their legs tangled together in her bed, her crisp white duvet a mess on the floor, James lays kisses along her shoulder and tells her she’s more beautiful than the day he first saw her, all those years ago.

“At the firing range, you were putting everyone there to shame and you knew it.”

“I always put everyone to shame.” She grins into her pillow.

James smiles against her shoulder. “I know. It’s one of the things I love about you. That and how humble you are.”

“Shut up.” Natasha snorts and swats at him tiredly, he catches her hand though, and holds onto it long enough that she turns to look at him. “James? You okay?”

“Yeah, just,” he snaps out of his daze and smiles at her, kissing the inside of her wrist “I love you.”

“Oh, is that all?” Natasha says softly. She pulls herself closer to him presses her lips to his and wraps her arms around him. “I love you too.”


End file.
